The head has identified research which says that teenagers would be more likely to take in what they are learning if they started school two hours later. He is considering changing the school timetable for sixth-formers as a result.

“We have always assumed that learning early in the morning is best, probably because it is best for young children and adults,” he writes. ” Unfortunately, it is not true for teenagers. When teenagers are woken up at our morning time, their brain tells them they should be asleep. So they use stimulants such as coffee and cigarettes to get themselves awake. But at night, when we go to sleep, their neurological clock tells them it’s not time to sleep so they drink alcohol or take drugs to get them to sleep.

“Schools and universities only make it worse, he adds. The importance of neurological patterns of time as a factor in our learning and our lives has largely been ignored. We need to fit learning to these patterns of times. ”

Comments

We now start our high school at 9 am – not for neurological time pattern reasons but because our chartered bus drivers (who drive city express routes during the morning rush) can’t get them here any earlier.